Chasing Your Dreams || Motivational Monday

It's official, I leave for California tomorrow! I am so excited! Last year I had an amazing time and learned so much, I can't image how much better it will be this year. Also, my mom and one of my best friends are both coming with me which is going to make it even more fun.

For those of you who do not know, I am going to California for VidCon. I have the amazing chance to play a set and also be a part of the first Mentorship program at VidCon. I am getting to work with 3 amazing YouTubers and het their advice and feedback on a huge project I have been secretly working on.

This has had me thinking a lot about my dreams and what I have sacrificed for them over the years. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a singer. I remember telling people in kindergarten that when I grew up I was going to be a singer. It is something that has always been in my heart. When I was little it was "cute." When I was in middle school I "needed to set my eye on something realistic." When I was in high school and opening for international pop stars and being signed to contracts on YouTube suddenly everyone had "always believed in me!" It isn't easy to pick a path that is different from the norm and you will most likely get a lot of pushback from people but if it is what you love and you have a true passion for it and are willing to work hard, go for it!

I have always thought that if I worked to try to make music work until 25, that still gave me plenty of time to work everything out if things did not go as well for me as I hoped. There is this huge pressure put on us so early to have everything figured out. I remember sitting in therapy at 14 crying my eyes out because I didn't have my whole future planned out yet and that meant that I was going to fail. I'm 19 now and realize how crazy that was.

No one has everything figured out and if they say they do, they are either lying to you or themselves. As it turns out, music has gone pretty well for me and it is worth all of the sacrifices and "well meaning realistic opinions" of others that I have dealt with but even if I had fallen flat on my face with music, I wouldn't regret the time and effort that I put into it.

I am working incredibly hard for my dreams every single day and that in itself is something to be proud of for the rest of my life. I will never have to look back on my life and think "What would have happened if I had just given it a shot? Could I have made it?" I won't have that regret because I am doing it.

I encourage everyone to take a dream of theres, be it big or small, and go for it! You would be surprised what you can accomplish if you are willing to put the work in and stretch a little outside your comfort zone. It can have a truly beautiful result.

Getting Organized || Motivational Monday

One of the hardest things for me while also being one of the things that drives me the craziest when it isn't done, is organization. In some aspects of my life I am so organized it is ridiculous. I can find anything on my computer in less than 10 seconds and there are 1,000 gigs on my hard drive. My room, on the other hand, looks like a tornado went through it and I have been looking for a dvd in here for over a week. I have been taking steps towards organization through all parts of my life recently and there has been one thing that has been helping me with that.

I am using a planner. Now, I have always used planners but this is the first time I have used a planner like this and put this much time into my planner and it is resulting in it being much more useful for me. I use it a lot to plan out my filming and upload schedule as well as my everyday tasks and work schedule.

The planner that I use is the Happy Planner. I LOVE it. It is perfect for what I need and I love that I can take pages in and out of it. This is the exact planner that I use.

Any planners I have used in the past have a horizontal layout with a few lines for each day. While it did work, that layout was just never ideal for me. There are three boxes for each day. They are labeled for morning, afternoon and evening. I'm sure this is great for people who have schedules that are crazy and have lots of meetings or appointments. I use washi tape to make my own labels. Currently since I have a lot of filming and writing to do in advance since I leave for LA so soon my labels are YouTube, Blog and Other. Typically I only use half of my blog box so I will write any overflow things from my other box in there in a different color ink. This is what the layout looks like. 

I also decorate my planner to make it a little more fun. If you would be interested in seeing a Plan With Me post, let me know! I think that could be a lot of fun to share how I am using this to truly organize my life!